


Who is the Guy in the Goggles

by elizziebeth13



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, LIKE A LOT OF ANGST, M/M, Not Really Character Death, Post Death of Captain America, Sad!Bucky, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, and its fine like 4 paragraphs later, like for real bear with me with the paintballs, like you think they die for a minute, mix of movie and comic canon, non plausible paintball science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 14:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7717873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizziebeth13/pseuds/elizziebeth13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A masked man keeps helping Bucky in fights against Hydra, and Bucky is a little fixated on figuring out who he is. </p><p>or</p><p>Bucky is still coping with losing Steve, and this guy really won't leave him alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who is the Guy in the Goggles

**Author's Note:**

> So this takes place in the movie canon, but after Steve dies. I'm sorry guys, I really am.

Sam had never seen Bucky cry. The man had been through hell and back, but Sam had never seen him shed a tear. Even at the funeral he was stoic and reserved. Granted, nobody saw Bucky for 3 days afterwards, and they had to physically break into his room to make sure he was alright, but the point still stands. 

Sam had never seen Bucky cry. But he had seen the aftermath multiple times.

The first was when Bucky handed him the shield and sad, “Steve would want you to carry it.” His face was puffy and red. He had small scratches under his eyes, most likely from wiping them with his metal arm.

It happened again on Steve’s birthday. Then again, on Bucky’s. Sam became more observant about it over time.There were times where Bucky would blankly stare at his food, or sit in the common room and look off into space. Those were the only times he came close to actually showing his vulnerability. For the most part, Bucky was very good at hiding his emotions. Tony said that it came from being a soldier. Sam knew it came from being a protector. 

But no matter how hard he tried, everybody could tell that losing his best friend took something out of him. It was 3 days after the 6 month anniversary of Steve’s death, when Sam finally saw tears streaming down Bucky’s face. 

Bucky thought that he was alone at the time. Most of the Avengers were out, either on missions or vacations, and he was left to take care of the tower for a week. He had asked Friday to lock up, and because of some glitch in Tony’s programming she had said, “Right away Mr. Rogers.” And right then Bucky couldn’t hold back anymore.

Sam had forgotten the present that he bought for his niece at the tower. He quickly ran back so he could grab it, and hopefully not be too late for her party. When Sam passed by the couch, he stopped dead in his tracks. Bucky was sitting on the ground, leaning up against the corner of the sectional with his knees pulled up to his chest. His face was hidden in his arms, but the sobs were causing his body to visibly shake. Sam was pretty sure that Bucky hadn’t noticed him yet.

Sam was at a bit of a crossroads, he could let Bucky save face, and pretend he saw nothing… or he could do the Steve Rogers/ Mama Darline Wilson thing to do and ask if he was OK. Sam’s choice, however, was made for him when Friday said, “Mr. Wilson, you are not supposed to be in the tower right now. May I ask why you are here?”

Bucky immediately looked up at Sam. Tears were streaming down his face, and all Sam could think about was how young he looked. He looked away from Bucky while he answered. “I just forgot something. I’ll leave when I’m no longer needed.”

Bucky watched him, but for once didn’t try to hide the fact that he was crying. Sam took the opportunity to sit down on the floor next to Bucky, leaving enough space so he wouldn’t feel crowded. “You don’t have to tell me,” he started, “but I think it might help you to actually talk to somebody.”

Bucky was silent for a minute. It was only after he spoke that Sam realized that he was trying his hardest to keep his voice steady. “I just miss him so much.”

Sam was two hours late to his niece’s party, and Natasha had to leave her mission in the hands of Wanda. But after that rough day, Bucky seemed to be a little better.

 

* * *

 

“Why don’t you go with  Captain Falcon?” Bucky suggested, out of the blue. 

Sam had been sitting at the breakfast bar, eating with the rest of his team, in the tower when Natasha showed him the news paper. The headline said in large print “ **HAS THE CAPTAINS TORCH FINALLY BEEN PASSED?** ” below it was the first picture where you could actually tell that Sam was fighting with the iconic shield. 

Sam had mumbled something about feeling weird, using his friend’s title, but he had not expected anybody to hear. Breakfast moved a little slowly after that. The wound was still pretty fresh. Eventually everybody got tired of the depressing mood, and moved on to do actual work, leaving Sam alone with Bucky, and Natasha. That was when Bucky made his suggestion.

“What?”

“You said you didn’t feel comfortable taking Steve’s name. So why not go by Captain Falcon?”

Natasha offered bucky a smile, “You could also go by the bald eagle. It works because of the patriotism, the flying, and the fact that you have a shaved head.”

Bucky chuckled at that. It caught Sam off guard. Bucky had only shown sadness a few times, but he had smiled even less. “You could go by Star Spangled Banner, because you fly like a flag flies, but I think that would work better for Bruce, if he wore red, white, and blue spandex.”

Sam laughed, “I could follow in Steve’s footsteps, and be Master Sergeant U.S.A.”

Bucky grinned at him, “It’s a little long, and if you abbreviate it to  M.S.U.S.A. Donald Trump will definitely sue you.”

Natasha looked at Bucky for a second, shocked by his modern political reference, before suggesting, “You could just use your first name… I mean, everybody knows who you are anyways. The only reason people use the code names is secrecy. People call Bucky, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Yet you insist on going by Black Widow.” Sam said, with a mean grin.

“Your point means nothing, because you don’t actually know my real name.”

Bucky offered her a confused look, before saying, “You know, Steve would be proud to have you call yourself Captain America. If anybody deserves to take on the title it’s you.” And with that, he stood up, and left the table.

 

* * *

 

“Sam you have to get the civilians out of here now,” Bucky shouted into the com piece.

“What’s going on up there?”

Bucky was hiding behind the pillar on the top floor of an office building that had been taken over by possible Hydra agents. They had stolen money and information, while taking every hostage that they possibly could. And just in case you didn’t already think they were evil, this was the office for a nonprofit charity that worked to help inner city kids stay off the streets and in school. “The place is crawling with agents. Some of them tapping into computers, others stealing or destroying things. I can get out of this. But those civilians have to be out of this building before guns start firing. Natasha, I’m assuming you have already subdued all of the agents on the first couple of floors.” He received an affirmative noise. “Ok help Sam.”

Bucky waited for the signal that every civilian was out of the building. Sam and Natasha returned to systematically attack the rest of the lower floors. Bucky started to move. They had told him to subdue the agents, but not kill them unless there were no other options, and then secure the hard drives that they had stolen from multiple offices. The could probably provide some important information down the line. Armed with a handgun, and a new Stark Tech Stun Gun, Bucky ran out from behind the pillar, taking down the first unsuspecting agent that he could. The rest of them stared at him for a long moment. 

“So there is not chance that you could all just turn yourselves in and we could avoid me electrocuting you, right?” 

One of the agents, a tall redheaded one, fired his gun. Bucky just barely deflected it with his left arm before mumbling, “Right.”

Bucky rushed forward, using his arm, and the kevlar, to protect him from the bullets whizzing by him. He used his stun gun, and the occasional left handed punch to take down as many agents as possible. And if he happened to use other agents against each other, nobody had to know.

As Bucky was pressing his Stun Gun to the back of an Agent, Sam’s voice crackled in his ear. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m good for now.” Bucky kicked an agent's legs out from under him and shocked him, “I’ll tell you if I need anything though”. One by one Bucky incapacitated agents, yet they seemed to be in never ending supply. A familiar voice in the back of his mind said, “Cut one head off and two more shall take its place.”

He was in the middle of a fight with two agents, when some of the ones still taking their time to loot the place fell to the ground. Bucky used the distraction to knock the two men out before investigating. Both of them were now covered with red liquid. “Guys?” Bucky called into his earpiece. He was worried now. Neither of them were shooting to kill either. And  there was no way the agents would shoot one of their own. 

“They keep appearing” Sam called back.

“I know,” Natasha added. Her call ended with the strangled noise of an agent.

Bucky barely had time to process this before he was pushed out of the way by a shorter man, who proceeded to shoot the two agents sneaking up on him. The man shot the last couple of agents leaving him and Bucky in absolute silence.

Bucky drew his actual gun and pointed it directly at the shorter man. The man in question turned around. He was wearing a vintage helmet and an oversized pair of tinted goggles, leaving very little of his face visible. His clothing added to his strange look. He was wearing jeans and boots that looked like they had gone a round or two at a paintball range, and a white t-shirt with a faded Pym labs logo. Over it all was a vest covered in different patches and pins.

“Woah buddy no need to point that thing at me.” His voice sounded distorted, as if it was being auto-tuned.

“Who are you?” Bucky asked, still holding the gun.

Sam asked Bucky what was going on, but went ignored.

“I’m the guy that just saved your ass. And now that I am getting a good look, I feel that I made a very good decision in doing so. It is a very nice ass.” 

Bucky squinted at the man in front of him.

“Why?”

“I want them gone as much as you do…” he paused at the sound of people running up the staircase. “The hard drives are in the office behind me. I have to go. Can’t have your friends thinking that I am a part of the problem now can I.”

The man ran to the nearest vent, which Bucky had just realized was open. “See you around beautiful,” the man said before jumping into the vent and disappearing.

Natasha was the first one to burst in from the stairwell, noting that the ground was littered with Hydra agents and that Bucky was holding a gun. “What happened?”

Bucky looked around the room, then back at her, “I have no idea.”   
  


* * *

 

“What happened exactly?” Tony asked. They were discussing the case with Director Fury in Tony’s lab so he could fix the dents in Bucky’s arm. 

“I was fighting Hydra agents and this little guy just came out of nowhere and shot these two that were trying to attack me… then he got the rest of them.”

“But the agents in question were uninjured,” Natasha added, sounding a little bit confused by Bucky’s explanation.

“I don’t know how though,” Bucky explained, “They were covered in red liquid. The guy saved me, flirted with me, told me where the hard drives were, then disappeared.”

  “OOO Bucky still getting it at 100 years old,” Tony sing songed, as he tapped out another dent.

“Really?” Sam asked, “That is what you got from that story?”   

“Maybe the Avengers have a copycat fanboy,” Fury suggested.

Bucky pailed slightly, before saying, “He said that he wants the Hydra agents gone too.”

“Doesn’t rule out the copycat theory,” Nick said with a raised eyebrow.

A young lab tech burst into the room. She walked over to Nick “Director Fury, here is the lab analysis of the red fluid found on the Hydra agents.”

“What was it?” Bucky asked, “I had assumed it was blood, but they only had bruises.”

The lab tech gestured to the report before saying, “It was red acrylic paint with an inhalable version of ketamine in it.”

“Horse tranquilizer? In paintballs?” Natasha asked.

“Yes. At initial impact it was enough to incapacitate the person that it hit, if aimed correctly, but it dissipated enough to not effect anyone else.”

“Do you have any clue who makes those?” Sam asked.

“Not at the moment. Lucy is looking into it.”

“Thank you Sophy,” Nick said, looking through the file, “I’ll page you if we need anything else.”

“No problem, sir.” She waved at everybody before walking out of the room.

“So Fury,” Bucky asked, “Do you still think we only have a fanboy, or did the crazy paintball guns say otherwise?”   

 

* * *

 

Bucky was eating cereal in Tony’s lab. Tony had wanted to tell the team about a new addition to his Stun Gun, so it could shoot from a distance. They ended up just hanging out in the lab watching Tony and Bruce parrot back ideas. Bucky kept trying to mess with them by suggesting impossible feats, like adding time travel or teleportation, but they seemed to be ready to do everything that came their way. 

Bucky was just about to ask them if they could make it the new guns pink, when somebody ran into the lab and yelled, “Tony!”

“Yo, Lucy. What do you think about a robot that times the release of milk into your cereal?”

She stopped and looked at him for a second. “I’m not a cereal person. And I have something more important than that to tell you. I found out where the paintballs from the other week came from.” She had earned everybody’s attention with that. “They are from a prototype created at Pym labs.”

Bucky perked up. “He was wearing a Pym Labs shirt!”

“Are you saying we have another Ant man on our hands?” Sam asked.

“No. The prototype was abandoned about 6 years ago, and the formula for the paintballs was posted online about a year later. It isn’t really public information per se but it isn’t impossible to find. But the gun was stolen, 2 months ago.”

“So,” Tony explained, “Somebody goes to Pym labs, and steals something outdated by almost 6 years instead of something a lot more effective for vigilante crime fighting.”

“He’s smart,” Lucy countered, “If I were going to steal something from here, I wouldn’t steal your suit, I’d take something you wouldn’t miss. Pym labs didn’t charge, nor did they know until a month after it was stolen.”

“So what does it mean?” Bucky mumbled.

“That’s up to you to find out. Your description may have been spot on, but there is no way I could find him. Even when talking to people at Pym labs about the theft. I have multiple files on here about everything.” She tossed Tony a flash drive and walked out.

* * *

 

Bucky saw the man again while he was buying coffee. He was walking out of the coffee shop when he heard a young woman yell, “Help!” He looked over towards the commotion to see a large man trying to mug a young woman, and what looked like her boyfriend. 

Bucky sprinted over to help, but was beat to the scene. Out of nowhere, the mugger was pushed to the ground. He tried to get up, but the small man, in the same outfit, jumped on top of him. Bucky took out his phone to take a photo, before calling for a police officer. The small man took something out of his pocket, another paintball, and smashed it onto the man’s chest.

“You two are safe now. Enjoy your evening.” He smiled at them, and ran off, right towards Bucky. “So we meet again gorgeous. Make sure the cops get him, will you?” he grinned again and disappeared.

Bucky finally got a good look at the photo when he showed it to Sam and Natasha. The guy looked like he was posing for it. He was looking directly into the camera and flashing a shit-eating grin.

“That guy saved you from 6 Hydra agents?” Sam asked, “He looks like a high schooler in a halloween costume.”

Natasha laughed at him. “Peter Parker took both of you down. Your robot had to save you… Bucky, you should show that to the computer analyst, Lucy, she might be able to use it to find him.”

 

* * *

 

“Sorry Sergeant Barnes.” 

“Call me Bucky.”

Lucy smiled at him before continuing, “Sorry Bucky, I wasn’t able to find anything using the photo, aside from where he got the goggles and the helmet. Both of which were on Amazon by the way. His face was too covered  up for facial recognition to find anything. I would ask you to get me his blood or spit so we could get a DNA test, but that is a little bit weird.”

“You said he got the helmet and goggles online, could you track who bought both of them?”

“I thought of that too. But it’s so common for people to purchase them together, that Amazon suggests it as a package deal. It’s apparently very common for a comic book costume. And even then, who knows how reliable the information in the Amazon database is. You could use a gift card, with a fake name, and send it to an incorrect address, and nobody would even know. I checked in with Pym labs again. They don’t know who stole the paintballs, or even how it happened.”

“Oh.” Bucky frowned. 

“Sorry I couldn’t be more help, but without any more information, we are kind of stuck. I’ll keep you updated on anything else I find.”

 

* * *

 

They moved forward. The Avengers still saved the world every couple of days. But Bucky couldn’t help but fixate on this guy that had now helped him twice. 

The next encounter was a little weird. Bucky and Natasha were doing a recon in Russia, and they had taken Wanda with them. Tony, Bruce and Vision had gone to Cal-Tech to talk to the computer science students. So for the first time since being attacked by Ant Man, Sam was alone at the tower. And he was going to use his time wisely. This meant that he was asleep by nine PM.

Sam hadn’t noticed anything wrong. The only out of the ordinary thing that happened during his alone time was when he woke up to see that the kitchen lights were on. He chalked it up to the faulty motion sensors. They were triggered by all sorts of things, from moths to falling brooms.

Natasha, Bucky and Wanda had come back the next day. “Wanda, what are the odds you can use your powers to pop out the dent in my ring finger. Stark won’t be back for a few days and it’s annoying me.”

“I can try,” she offered.

Sam walked out of the kitchen to greet them. “How did it go?”

“Everyone is safe,” Natasha said, “But I need a shower and a nap.”

“You got the right idea,” Bucky agreed, “I’m gonna go put my bag in my room, then we can try to fix that dent.”

Bucky had only been in his room for about 30 seconds when he yelled, “Guys! Can you come in here?”

They rushed into the room, only to see Bucky holding a folder and a note.

Tony flew back immediately.

 

_ Hey beautiful. _

_ I got word that Hydra Agents are planning on attacking Cassidy PI firm. Smart idea. Money and secrets seem to be their thing. I gave you all of the information I could get on their plan and on the firm. Not sure when the attack is going to take place. So get ready.  _

_ I’ll see you there.  _

_ Stay sexy. _

 

The note ended with a little drawing of the goggles that the man always wore.

 

The lab techs and CSIs had already searched the tower. Nothing was left out of place. Not a single identifiable fingerprint, or any evidence even pointed to a break in. They were at a loss.

“Friday,” Tony yelled, “How the hell did this get here?”

“Somebody entered the tower at 3:27 AM last night and stayed in the tower for 13 minutes.” she answered. 

“Why didn’t you alert fly boy about the break in.”

“It was not a break in Mr. Stark. He had clearance to enter the tower.”

“How.”

“He was in the system.”

“Who was it”

“He was in the system.”

Tony was getting mad now. “Who was it.”

“I do not have a name, sir, he had an override code and was able to enter. He was aware of the code, meaning that he was in the system.”

Bucky smiled, “That means he is somebody we can find.”

“Not necessarily,” Tony said grimly, “That override code has been given to every agent that works for the Avengers initiative, from field agents, to lab techs, to CSIs in case of emergency. It has probably spread to a couple of members of Pym Labs, and anybody who calls themselves an Avenger. Not to mention, he could have gotten the code from somebody else… I’m going to change it right now.”

 

Tony changed the code, and for the most part, everything calmed down. That night Tony came up from his lab to turn in at around 2 AM. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed that Bucky was sitting on the counter holding the stun gun.

“At ease soldier,” Tony said, holding his hands up.

“He knows where my bedroom is.” In those six words, Tony noticed something that he had never seen before in Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes… Fear.

“There is one other room you can stay in, if it would get you to not point a gun at anybody who walks into my kitchen.”

That night, while buried under Steve Roger’s previously untouched covers, for the first time in 3 months, Bucky let loose and cried. And if anybody noticed the dark circles, and scratches under his eyes at breakfast the next day, they kept it to themselves. Bucky stayed in Steve’s room from that night on, and that stayed between him and Tony.      

 

* * *

 

The PI firm did get attacked about 2 weeks later. Two security guards had been gunned down by the time the Avengers got to the building. They rushed out civilians as quickly as possible, and made sure that ambulances were on the way. Bucky and Natasha were in the main hub of the building, a room filled with computers and files that had the information of over 60 different millionaire and billionaire clients. They worked together to take down every agent they could, and unlike last time, they were relatively unafraid to hurt them. 

Things were going well, until one agent started speaking Russian. Rationally Bucky knew that it wouldn’t effect him any more. Wanda took care of the Sputnik issue a while ago. But that didn’t mean he was above panicking. He turned his gun on the agent, but before he could pull the trigger. 5 paintballs, all different colors, hit the agent square in the chest.

“That dosage may have been excessive,” the familiar voice said, “but very worthy of helping your beautiful head stay on straight.”

Bucky stared at the man, before moving out to take down another agent. It took a minute for him to register the fact that this was the first time somebody else was seeing him in person too.

“So you are real,” Natasha said as the man shot somebody creeping up behind her with a neon green paintball.

“Yes I am. It is statistically impossible for you Avengers to all be this good looking, By the way.” The three kept working as a team to take down the agents that kept pouring into the hub. 

“Who are you?” Natasha asked, while flipping one of the agents that ran at her. 

“Somebody with a common enemy,” the man answered.

“Do you have a name?” Bucky asked this time, dodging a punch.

“If you must call me something, you can call me beautiful too.” He grinned at Bucky.

Agents were backing Bucky into a wall. Saddly for them, they were just in range for Bucky’s Stun Guns. “I don’t think that would go over well with my boss… No matter how true it might be.” He heard Natasha groan and mumble something under her breath.

“There is nothing wrong with a little flirting,” the man directed at Natasha, “As for a name, I don’t really have one.” he shot another agent. “Hydra took a lot from me, and I intend on getting it back.”

“So you want revenge.” Natasha clarified, taking out an agent that was running to attack the man. “Not sure if that is the best way to go about things.”

“It’s helped so far… I’m really just trying to find things, and it may be over their unconscious, imprisoned bodies. And even if I don’t find anything, I did get to see your beautiful face.” He grinned at Bucky. With one shot to the final agent standing, the man said, “I will see you all soon. Until we meet again beautiful.” He sprinted away from them and out the window.

Bucky and Natasha looked at each other, not really speaking, before running down the stairs to help everyone else.

 

* * *

 

“So you saw him too?” Sam asked Natasha at the briefing.

“Yeah,” she answered, “He looked exactly the same as that photo. And he acted the same way that bucky described last time. He helped us, flirted with Bucky, and ran off.”

“What’s his deal with Bucky?” Tony asked.

“I’ll have you know, I am very good looking,” Bucky grumbled.

“Yes but why does this random stranger have such a fixation on you?” Tony asked, “Both times you met him he flirted with you, and he even flirted with you in that letter that he left in your room. It’s no coincidence. He even flirted with you, while one of the most good looking people I have ever seen was in the room with you.”

Bucky looked taken aback for a second before his eyes widened. “I’m a former Hydra agent, and he wants what they took from him back.”

“And he plans on doing that by seducing you?” Sam asked.

“No,” Wanda interrupted, “I am also a former Hydra agent, and Natasha worked for the KGB. Yet he hasn’t said anything to just us. I don’t think it has to do with that at all. It is something about you.”

Bucky sat in silence for a minute, lost in thought as the rest of the team moved on the talk about the actual mission. He wasn’t paying much attention to everyone else when he abruptly said, “He knew about Sputnik.”

“What?” Tony asked, ignoring the fact that he had just been interrupted.

“The man with the paintballs. He knew about the Hydra programming. One of the agents started the code, and the man sprayed him with paintballs.”

“He’s right,” Natasha agreed, “I totally forgot about that.”

“Wait,” Sam interjected, “that means this guy knew about Sputnik, but not that it was deactivated. Neither of them were public information, but one piece is a lot easier to get if you know where to look.”

Wanda looked at Sam for a second, “Are you implying that the man with the paintballs is also a former member of Hydra?”

“I think so.”

 

* * *

 

Bucky got a phone call from Scott Lang about a week later. “Bro we found something.”

“What?”

“You know the guy with the paintballs?”

“Of course.” Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Well we found a photo from the night when the paintballs were stolen.”

“Wait, really?” Bucky

“Don’t get too excited man, it is really just proof that he was our thief.” Bucky sagged into the chair and sighed. “Don’t pull a 180 on me either man. The photo got sorted into the wrong file by the computer. It takes a picture of everyone who opens the lab doors so we can keep account of who has entered the lab. If a person with clearance opens the doors it is put in one file, and if it is a break in, the photo is put into another file and security gets alerted.”

“So… What?”

“This wasn’t a glitch in the system. He had clearance to enter our lab. And on top of that, in the photo, which I am sending over to you now, He had a beard, we know his hair color.”

Bucky ran to Tony before he even had time to put the phone on the receiver.

 

“There are only 20 living people, including the two of us, that know both of those codes, and none of them fit this guy’s description remotely.” Tony said staring at a projection of the photo.

“So you are saying he stole it,” Bucky confirmed.

“He had to. There is no other way that he could have possibly gotten in.”

Bucky turned to leave, then asked, “why did you say living people?”

“Because the other 5 people who knew both codes have already kicked it.”

 

* * *

 

Fury finds out about a secret Hydra base that holds information about plans for the future, the winter soldier project, and their new weapons about 2 weeks later. He chooses to order a full assault and recon on the base.

A group consisting of Tony, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, and Natasha was sent to a base hidden in the woods of upstate New York. They were convened on a hill that was covered by the trees while Tony scanned the base. “It looks like there are about 70 men, nothing we can’t take. There are 5 floors, 3 of them are underground.”

“What’s the plan here, because if we just move out from here we will get gunned down almost instantly.” Sam asked.

“Wanda, you, and me will come in from above. Do you mind taking out all of the windows?” Wanda nodded, “Good. Barnes and Nat, you two go around and storm in from the back. Catch them by surprise. We will hold them off while you two go and get the computer files.”

Bucky and Natasha nodded in agreement. 

“Alright team,” Sam said with a grimace, “ let’s do this.”

 

To say it could have gone much more smoothly would be the understatement of the year. The Hydra agents seemed to know what was happening before hand. The only thing helping the team was that the Hydra agents didn’t have the firepower to shoot them out of the sky. Natasha and Bucky fought through rounds of people, constantly having to kill somebody who was sneaking up on the other just to make it to the entrance.

Inside the building was a completely different story. The ground was littered with Hydra agents that were covered in varying amounts of colored paint. Natasha and Bucky stepped around the bodies on the floor, guns still drawn. The man with the paintball appeared out of the stairwell shortly after.

“Hey blondie,” Natasha called.

“Hello Black Widow, hello beautiful,” he answered. He was holding his paintball gun in one hand, and what looked like an Apple hard drive in the other. “I see you found out my real hair color.”

“Well,” Natasha replied, “next time you steal a prototype from a lab, you might want to shave.”

“I always knew that my downfall would have something to do with my poor shaving habits.” he laughed, and held up the hard drive, “I think I have what all of you need.”

“Did you find what you wanted?” Bucky asked.

“Not in here.” he answered. Bucky felt that that wasn’t the entire answer, but chose not to press any further, seeing how limited their time actually was. The man handed the hard drive to Natasha.

“Thank you. But if you really want to help us, you would take down the agents that are attacking our teammates,” she said as she put the drive into Bucky’s backpack. 

“Count me in.” The man grinned and ran out the same way that Bucky and Natasha had entered. Natasha looked at Bucky for a second, before following him out of the building. The man in the goggles had already take down an agent that was trying to shoot at Wanda. She stared at him for a moment, but he just moved on to the next agent.

At one point he ended up back to back with Tony. “So you are the guy that broke into my home and traumatized my friend.”

“Sorry about that,” he answered, shooting an agent and adjusting his goggles, “I needed a way to tell you about the upcoming attack.”

“So you are a mole then.”

The man actually had the audacity to laugh at the accusation. “No they just have surprisingly bad computer security. One bug could take down every plan that was made on a portable computer.”

Tony peered at him through the lenses of his suit. “How do you feel about flying?”

Even though Tony couldn’t see them, he could tell the man had one eyebrow raised. “An aerial assault is gonna be much easier and you look like a good shot that is actually small enough for Sam to carry.”

“Thats a great idea Tony!” Sam said into the earpiece. He swooped down and grabbed the man with almost no warning. The first thing that Sam heard the mystery man say was a garbled “aaah”.

Sam and the man worked to shoot any unsuspecting Hydra agent that they possibly could. “Your team is incredible. They picked a good Captain.”

“Bucky picked a good captain.”

The man didn’t respond, choosing instead to shoot somebody that was getting a little bit too close to Bucky. The fight continued until there was only one agent cornered between Bucky and Wanda. The man noticed the grin on the Hydra agent’s face. “He is going to kill himself!”

Before anybody had time to move, the agent crumbled to the ground, mouth foaming slightly. Wanda turned to Sam and the man as they landed. “How did you know that would happen.”

“They are Nazis,” the man responded, “It’s kinda their thing. They would rather end it than give you the satisfaction of killing or capturing them.”

Wanda nodded in response, “Do you have the hard drive.”

Bucky nodded.

“So what do we do next?”

The man looked around the group before saying, “I think we should blow it up.”

Tony opened his mask so he could actually look at the guy. “I love blowing things up as much as the next crime fighter, but we don’t have any explosives.”

“They do,” the man said, waving towards the hydra agents, “We use their own explosives to blow up the building. We are far enough away from any populated areas that no civilians will get hurt. And we can control it enough so there is no forest fire. There is nothing good that can come from this thing remaining operational.”

“Somebody would have to detonate it from the inside then,” Natasha reasoned.

The man didn’t even hesitate, “I’ll do it.”

“You can’t!” Bucky shouted, “We are not going to leave you here to die!”

“I think you have to beautiful. The world needs the Avengers, but it doesn’t need little old me. Nobody even knows that I exist.”

“You can’t,” Bucky argued.

“Somebody needs to. And you all have a lot more work to do if the world is going to be safe from these guys. I got what I wanted, and now I want you all to get out of here so I can detonate this thing.”

“You’re sure about this?” Sam asked.

“Yes. I got everything I wanted… Actually I have one more thing.” He glanced at Bucky momentarily before grabbing him by the metal arm and kissing him. It was nothing overly passionate, just a quick press of the lips, but Bucky had never felt more emotional about a kiss before in his life. The man pulled back and smiled at him. “Now I have everything I wanted. Goodbye beautiful. You all have 10 minutes to get out of here, then I’m gonna detonate.” He gave them all one last smile and a joking salute before running back into the building.

 

Sam and Tony had to physically drag Bucky away and onto the jet. He couldn’t watch the explosion, and trusted Wanda to tell him when it actually happened. 

 

Sam felt like Bucky had taken two steps backwards. He was finally getting better, and this little man had reopened the wound. 

 

* * *

 

Sam got a phonecall from the archive at the New York Museum of Natural history at 3:57pm two weeks later. He was only able to say hello before somebody on the other end said, “Tell your beautiful friend that I takes a lot more than a collapsing building to kill me.” The line went dead, and Sam was unsure of what happened.

 

“So he’s alive?” Bucky asked with a hopeful smile, “We can find him.”

“He is… But I think we should talk about it a little more before you go on a rampage trying to find this guy,” sam said calmly.

“What do you mean?”

“I think you are projecting. You never gave yourself time to get over Steve, and now you are fixating on this stranger with a paintball gun. You never mourned you just kept fighting.”

“Wanda lost her brother and she is out on the field.” Bucky knew he was deflecting, but he really did not want to talk about this. He did not want to cry in front of Sam again. 

“It took Steve and Clint two months to even get her to leave the tower for dinner, you got back out there less than a week after the funeral. I think you are projecting on to this guy as a way of coping. And I get it, I really do. After--”

Bucky stopped him right there. “No. You do not get it Sam! I know Steve was your friend, and I know about Riley, but you do not get it you are not even close!”

Sam put his hands up defensively. “Woah there, Bucky calm down.”

“No I’m not gonna calm down Sam! You don’t get it. I was born 100 years ago, and I just celebrated my 28th birthday, which by the way was the first time I have celebrated a birthday without Steve since I was 7. My body has been permanently altered by the most evil people ever, and they still have a hold on my mind. You have no clue what it is like to know that the only people that you trust are afraid that you are going to kill them in cold blood. You are not afraid of your own bedroom. So yeah, I’m fixating. Because if I don’t keep moving I’m gonna drown. So you can help, or you can leave me to it.” Bucky turned away from Sam and walked into the room that used to be Steve’s. That is how he found out that Bucky hadn’t been into his own bedroom for over a month.

 

* * *

  
  


Bucky sat silently as everybody else on the team, including Clint and Scott, gathered around the table in the conference room.

“So we are gonna try to catch this guy?” Scott asked.

“Yes, Captain Obvious,” Natasha said, with a roll of her eyes, “And I think our best bet is to let him come to us.”

“She’s right,” Sam added, “When we were looking for Bucky we kept missing him, but this time it seems like this guy almost wants us to find him. Based on what Tony found in that hard drive, there is going to be another Hydra attack, this time at a bank, in three days. He is probably going to try to help us. We can catch him then.”

Tony spoke up, “I was able to make some of those paintballs. Clint is going to be positioned in the vents, and he is going to shoot our unsuspecting John doe. We can take him in and question him.”

“He stays alive.” Bucky said with a deadpan face.

 

* * *

  
  


The Hydra agents storm the bank 3 days later, and for the first time they are not the ones that are 2 steps ahead. Clint had already been hiding in the vents for about an hour slingshot and paintballs in hand. Wanda was undercover as a teller. Bucky and Natasha were posing as civilians, while Sam and Tony hid behind the counter. Scott was in little mode sitting on the counter behind a cup of pens. 

They even had a civilian escape plan and the police stationed about a block away. The hydra agents wouldn’t even get to be the stars of their own robbery. The only thing that was really going for the Hydra agents was the fact that they outnumbered the Avengers about 5 to 1. 

It only took about 30 seconds for things to start flying around the room. Wanda was using her powers to throw the decorations at the couple of agents that had cornered her, until she got bored with it and chose to force one agent to fight the others. 

The agent that had to deal with Scott growing out of his kevlar vest looked like he was about to have a heart attack, and the guy next to him did not expect to be beaten over the head with a 6 foot tall ballpoint pen. Bucky was holding his own with the stun gun, but he was thankful that one punch from Ironman seemed to be the perfect way to stop anybody too resilient.   

Sam threw the shield directly at another agent, pushing him into the far wall. However because the shield really doesn’t obey the laws of physics, it bounced off of the agent and away from Sam. The man in the goggles caught the shield in both hands, struggling to stay upright because of the momentum. He flashed a grin at Sam before using the Shield to bash an unsuspecting Hydra agent over the head. 

The Avengers worked to fight the Hydra agents while allowing the man in the goggles to do his own fighting. He was blissfully unaware of the fact that as they were incapacitating Hydra agents, they were also surrounding him. Natasha took down the last Hydra agent with a well placed kick to the groin. 

“Nice job!” the man glanced around the room, actually taking note of the fact that he was standing in the middle of a very angry super-circle. “Hey Beautiful, why are you pointing that gun at me?” The man was still holding the shield, and instead of using it as a weapon, like Sam and Bucky were so fond of doing, he pulled it towards himself. 

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Wanda said from behind him.

“Then maybe don’t point your weapons at me,” he suggested. He looked like he was about to say more, but then his eyes widened. He took a deep breath and held the shield out as far away from himself as he could just as it was pelted with paintballs. He waited a couple of seconds before taking another breath. “Next time don’t use my own weapons against me.” he sounded angry, which, to Bucky, seemed really abnormal.

“Technically they are Hank Pym’s,” Scott said, opening his mask to actually get a good look at the person standing in front of him. “Who are you anyways?”

The man said nothing. He glanced around the circle, looking more like a scared animal, than somebody who was able to survive the implosion of a hydra base. HE was clearly trying to figure out an escape route, but was coming up with nothing. 

Wanda looked at the man for a minute before saying, “Alright, I’ve had enough.” She waved her hand whipping the helmet across the room and breaking the band on the goggles, causing them to fall to the ground. 

Time seemed to stop right then. The only sound in the room was Clint saying, “oh shit!” through the coms. Bucky stared at him, hands dropping to his sides, stun gun crashing to the ground. “Steve?”

“Hi Bucky.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry about that ending too.


End file.
